5% discount for knowitall.ch readers on all orders placed before end of 2017!
If you have a home improvement project in mind for 2017, which involves an element of woodwork, then you should talk to Woodhouse Carpentry in Geneva.
Set up in 2013 by Englishman Sam Woodhouse, a locally trained cabinet maker, the company specializes in bespoke furniture, fitted bookshelves and wardrobes, but is also able to fit internal hinged and sliding doors, install mezzanine beds and undertake external woodwork such as decking and fences.
Asked why he decided to set up his business here in Geneva, Sam told knowitall.ch, “After I completed my training as a cabinet maker at the professional woodwork school in Geneva (CFC Menuisier), it soon became apparent that there were several English-speaking tradesmen and handymen in the region, but few who were equipped with a workshop for quality woodwork and cabinet making. So I decided to set up my own small woodwork business where we could all work together in well-equipped workshops close to Geneva airport. Our workshop is based in a professional woodworking collective in Vernier where the total experience totals more than 70 years."
Alina Pop (left) with one of her staff, Otilia Moise, at the recent Expat Expo fair in Geneva.
10% discount for knowitall.ch readers on their first cleaning session!
If you’ve lived in the Lake Geneva area any number of years, and you don’t have the time to clean your own house, then you will realise just how difficult it can be to find and keep a good, reliable cleaner. Good ones are nearly always fully booked and the rest seem to come and go as they please. The best ones can also get away with charging steep hourly rates, because they know you are desperate!
As a busy international economist and EU lawyer, originally from Romania, Alina Pop knows only too well how hard it can be to keep on top of the housework. Traveling frequently between the States and Switzerland, she has had plenty of time to reflect on the problem and consider how she may help others in a similar situation to herself. So in March 2015, she created Zenali Property Management, a professional service, with trusted employees, who can act promptly to requests, and who won’t charge a small fortune to do so!
Alina told knowitall.ch, “All my team are my employees, not just some names from a list that I call when I have cleaning requests. They are all legal, holders of Swiss working permits, with AVS and paid taxes, health insurance, work accidents and work damage insurance. We are a big family in Zenali. All workers have their own cars, provided by the company, to go to work, in order to be able to serve clients not only in Geneva, but up to Lausanne and also across the French border, where plenty of expats live.”
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us at the celebratory launch of the 10th Edition of Know-it-all passport® at this year’s Expat-Expo fair in Geneva, on Sunday 2nd October, 2016.
With lively entertainment provided by Fanan from Cocktails Entertainment, our corner stand was buzzing with excitement as customers flocked to see for themselves Fanan’s renowned flair bartending skills and sample his amazing glow-in-the-dark cocktails.
As people posed to have their photos taken with their drinks, others took the opportunity to do some networking or watch the celebration video produced for this special occasion by Zuzana Hevler of VisualSouvenirs. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the film in full, you can see it now by clicking on the image below.
Excerpt from trailer below.
To celebrate the 10th edition of Know-it-all passport® (KIAP), we are creating a special video that will be loaded on our site, and viewed at various events.
We are asking KIAP enthusiasts to send in any of the below:
- a short video, up to 1 minute long (see details below)
- a photo (possibly of you holding any edition, on your bookshelf at home or the office, in the car, or anywhere else you can imagine)
- a greeting card (send in a congratulations card to the address below)
You can include other people or props: business associates, family, pets, balloons, confetti, banners, glass of champagne, etc. The photo of the book(s) in the bookshelf would be the perfect backdrop or wherever it is used the most (coffee table, car, stroller, office).
Lisa heading out to make the first deliveries of the new book.
The 10th edition of the popular Know-it-all passport® guidebook is now hot off the press and being delivered to local shops near you!
Look out for the new shiny, hardback cover on the book shelves and see for yourself the wealth of new information that has been packed into this special anniversary edition of the book, targeting the English-speaking community of Geneva, Vaud and neighboring France.
With 780 pages and more than 50 chapters, the 10th edition includes 2 new chapters devoted to helping English-speaking residents integrate into this region. COOK LIKE A LOCAL includes lots of interesting facts about local dishes and useful food-related expressions, whereas SPEAK LIKE A LOCAL clears up some of the confusion that can often occur over similar sounding words, and provides a number of handy phrases to help you appear more confident when talking to locals. Not only will newcomers benefit from these new chapters, but those living in the area for years will certainly learn something new!
Asked why she decided to launch the new book in a shiny hardback cover, editor Lisa Cirieco-Ohlman told us, “The success of Know-it-all passport is due largely to the thousands of recommendations that I have received about local business and services over the past 17 years. I wanted people to hold the book and see themselves in the solid mirror-like cover, and understand that it is their contributions that have inspired me to make Know-it-all passport® what it is today!”
